Fat Stem Cells for Knee Arthritis

Alan Mozes writing for Healthday reported on a small study that showed that only one injection of stem cells can reduce pain and inflammation.

The idea is experimental: to extract the stem cells from the fat cells of the patient's own body, known for their ability to differentiate and perform any number of regenerative functions, and to inject them directly into the damaged knee joint.

To explore the potential of stem cell therapy, the study's authors focused on 18 French and German men and women, ages 50-75, all of whom had struggled with severe knee osteoarthritis for at least a year before joining to study.

Between April 2012 and December 2013, all patients underwent liposuction to extract samples derived from fat of a specific type of stem cells. The researchers noted that these particular stem cells have been shown to have immunological and anti-healing properties, as well as the ability to protect against cell "stress" and death.

One-third of patients received a single "low-dose" injection of their own stem cells directly into their knee. Another third received a "medium dose" injection, which involved slightly more than four times the number of stem cells, while the remaining group received a "high dose" injection packaged with approximately five times more stem cells than the average dose group.

After six months, the study team found that all three groups showed improvement in terms of pain, function, and mobility. However, it was only determined that those in the low dose group had "statistically significant" improvements in terms of knee pain and recovery of function.